[nfbwatlk] Fw: READ AND WEEP!

Tue Jul 31 09:47:01 CDT 2007

Has anyone called Dean?
Carl Jarvis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mackenstadt, Gary" <Gary.Mackenstadt at ed.gov>
To: "NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List" <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 7:24 AM
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Fw: READ AND WEEP!

> This article does unbelievable damage.  I would like to think that there 
> are people at WSB who are also offended.  We need to find out who is 
> responsible.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org]On 
> Behalf Of Mike Freeman
> Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2007 7:03 PM
> To: NFB of Washington Talk
> Subject: [nfbwatlk] Fw: READ AND WEEP!
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Michelle Creedy
> To: Elizabeth Lalonde ; list at cfb.ca
> Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2007 6:44 PM
> Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] READ AND WEEP!
>
>
> How stupid!!!  That's not what its like to be blind!  I don't tollorate
> my
> blind students putting their hands in their food thank you very much!
> Maybe
> I'm too strict but that's just gross!!!  Ew!!!  That makes me feel quite
> ill!!!  Not even our school in South Africa would have done something
> like
> that!  At least teach them some skills if you have to do simulations!
> Now I
> see why the Federation is so against them!
>
> Michelle Who is Rather Grossed out!
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Elizabeth Lalonde" <elalonde at shaw.ca>
> To: <list at cfb.ca>
> Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2007 4:47 PM
> Subject: FW: [nfbwatlk] READ AND WEEP!
>
>
> See article below.
>
> This is why we in the Federation are against simulations.  Because they
> do
> not give people an accurate idea of what it is like to be blind.
> Blindness
> is a skill and it takes some practice to learn to be a competent blind
> person.  It isn't something you can learn in a half an hour.  All the
> simulations do is scare people and reinforce stereotypes of the
> helpless,
> fumbling blind person.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On
> Behalf Of Mike Freeman
> Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2007 4:36 PM
> To: NFB of Washington Talk
> Subject: [nfbwatlk] READ AND WEEP!
>
> A Feast Not for the Eyes
> Turns out it’s not so easy eating blind. From left, educators Heidi
> Stump, Diana Graham and Cheryl Edmonds eat their entrees blindfolded as
> part of a five-day
> intensive workshop through the Washington State School for the Blind.
> (ISOLDE RAFTERY/The Columbian)
> Sunday, July 29, 2007
> BY ISOLDE RAFTERY, Columbian staff writer
>
> Cheryl Edmonds is not, at first glance, the sort of person who would
> plunge her hands into her salad bowl. But Wednesday evening, at the
> Olive Garden in
> Vancouver, Edmonds was blindfolded and desperate to connect with her
> entree.
>
> Edmonds, of Vancouver, was among 37 people, most of them educators, who
> agreed to a blind dinner. The exercise is part of a five-day intensive
> workshop
> on blindness.
>
> By the end of the meal, Edmonds, who was seated with two other
> blindfolded women, had ditched etiquette.
>
> "I'd like to touch it all," she said, fingering a leaf. "I don't even
> know how much I ate. Oh! There's a lot left."
>
> Sitting next to her, Diana Graham, a kindergarten teacher from the North
> Mason School District, north of Olympia, used her fingers to wrap
> fettuccine noodles
> around her fork.
>
> And Heidi Stump, a paraeducator seated at their table, was taking sips
> from various glasses of soda.
>
> The three women, poised and socially aware without their blindfolds,
> behaved like giddy children learning table manners.
>
> The idea behind the blind dinner was to provide a blind experience, and
> also to help explain how specific directions ("Your iced tea is 5 inches
> in front
> of you with the straw bobbing out") are key to working with blind
> students. Educating the teachers
>
> Dee Amundsen, director of outreach at the School for the Blind, said the
> five days are a time for teachers who work with blind students to learn
> about blindness.
>
>
> In Washington, there are 80 teachers for 1,300 visually impaired
> students, Amundsen said.
>
> "Finding teachers for the visually impaired is like finding a needle in
> a haystack," she said. "A lot of kids don't get services. All these
> people who are
> teaching visually impaired kids don't know anything about blindness."
>
> At the restaurant, the educators learned they can't just "say when" to a
> waiter grinding pepper over their entrees. Someone must read the menu to
> them.
> And then there's going to the restroom - an awkward dance that involves
> dodging patrons, slinking into a stall and finding the toilet seat.
>
> For Graham, the veteran kindergarten teacher from North Mason School
> District, the five-day stint is worth it. She will have a blind student
> in her class
> come fall.
>
> "I want to figure out how best to teach a child," Graham said. "I want
> to get her reading for Braille. I want to get some academics into her."
>
> Then she paused.
>
> "Are you still there?" she asked, also attempting to land a small pile
> of fettuccine into her mouth.
>
> Yes, everyone was still there.
>
> "I feel stupid," Graham said. "I don't normally miss my face when I
> eat."
>
> Cheryl Edmonds, a consultant, agreed.
>
> "I get a sense for the independence thing," she said. "If the lights
> went out tomorrow, I don't know what that would mean for me."
>
> Did you know?
>
> There are 1,300 visually impaired or blind students in Washington.
>
> Eighty teachers are trained to teach blind students in the state.
>
> About 70 students attend Washington State School for the Blind in
> Vancouver. The school serves about 600 students per month statewide.
>
> Isolde Raftery writes about education. She can be reached at
> 360-759-8047 or isolde.raftery at columbian.com.
>
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